208 Thunder Drive could become new address for Oklahoma City Thunder

When the Oklahoma City Thunder was trying to come up with a new name for the stretch of S Robinson Avenue that runs past Chesapeake Energy Arena, Thunder Road and all variations including Boulevard and Alley were out — but the team has decided that the name Thunder Drive is a slam dunk.

Alice Troy and Jacqueline Ames close off Reno at 7 a.m. in preparation for the first game of the NBA basketball finals at the Chesapeake Arena on Tuesday, June 12, 2012 in Oklahoma City, Okla. Photo by Steve Sisney, The Oklahoman

The Thunder wants to change the name of the block-long piece of S Robinson Avenue between W Reno Avenue and SW 3 Street to Thunder Drive and has applied to the city to rename the road.

“Thunder Drive has a good ring to it — and obviously drive has a basketball connotation, too,” said Dan Mahoney, a spokesman for the team. “We went through several different ideas and it kind of stuck.”

When the Thunder's business office moves into a newly renovated home at the arena this fall, the team wants its permanent address to be 208 Thunder Drive. The city asked the team to pick an even number between 200 and 400 for its street address and the Thunder picked 208, because it was close to 2008 — the year that the team moved to Oklahoma City from Seattle, Mahoney said.

In its application to the city, the Thunder said that the name change would “celebrate the deep ties between the Thunder and our community.”

“We are humbled to see how this organization has become truly woven into the fabric of Oklahoma City,” the Thunder said in the application.

The name change is a symbol of the national attention that the Thunder has brought to Oklahoma City, said Tom Anderson, special projects manager for Oklahoma City, who oversees the arena for the city.

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Brianna Bailey has lived in Idaho, Germany and Southern California, but Oklahoma is her adopted home. She has a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma and has worked at several newspapers in Oklahoma and Southern...